Umm Qais/Jerash

After a long week of classes and our midterm, we were happy to go to bed early Thursday night and rest up for a day of hiking through ruins. Friday we left early for Umm Qais, the site of the ruined Hellenistic-Roman city of Gadara. The view from the edge of the ruined city was beautiful, looking over the Sea of Galilee , Tiberius and Golan Heights, (part of Syria occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War). We spent a couple of hours walking through ruins and looking at monuments, then drove to the nearby Yarmouk River. The river forms the border of Jordan and Israel on its northern end, and of Jordan and Syria on the south. We were on the south end, and it was really cool to stand on a hill, look across and see Syria only about 100 feet away. LIterally the mountain on the other side of the river is Syria. In 636, the Muslim Arabs overtook the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Yarmouk, which is significant historically because until this time the Arabs were a small power. The Byzantine Empire was the most powerful, and the Persian Empire second, but this battle started the string of Islamic Conquests following Muhammad's death, which would lead to the swift advance of Islam in the Levant, (Eastern Mediterranean/West Asia).
After Umm Qais we went north to Jerash, or the Gerasa of Antiquity. It is known for its ruins of the Greco-Roman city Gerasa, and is considered the most well preserved and important Roman city in the Near East. Gerasa was part of the decapolis, and is home to many impressive monuments. After a giant lunch, (pita, hummus of several varieties, kabobs, tea, salad, beans, noodles), we had fun wandering through columns, posing for pictures and jumping off rocks. There was an amphitheater, (we've seen a lot of those now), with two men playing bagpipes for tourists. The second our group walked up they started playing Yankee Doodle, (embarrassing), which was made even worse by the clapping and foot stomping some of our more annoying group members participated in. What they didn't realize, is they played Yankee Doodle to mock us, and the security guards were laughing at pointing at their enthusiasm. Our group of 13 does not get along very well. There are three or four small groups of people who get along really well, and some of those groups get along with others, but overall it is a strange dynamic when we're all together. It's mostly two people that ruin things for everyone, and our professor/advisor is so nice I feel bad for him that he has to mediate this, (he's especially involved because the cause of all the trouble is his own daughter). Regardless, Jerash was very interesting and pretty. It also reminded me of Hercules, one of my all time favorite Disney movies :)
Exhauseted from a day in the sun, we went back to the Yemeni restaurant–delicious!–and fell asleep early. Today, we had a lunch with a student at Yarmouk. He cooked a huge amount of food, followed by at least 9 watermelons. Now Brianna, Cassidy, Mike and I are studying and watching the World Cup at our favorite cafe. The World Cup is crazy here. Everyone is so excited and there are flags and jerseys of every country hanging in restaurants and the streets. Robert, Rick and Jimmy would love it. We're halfway done with the program, and we're getting used to Irbid and liking it more at the same time as we're getting sick of it and missing the U.S. more. I'm excited to move into level 2 for Arabic this week! And next weekend we're going to the Dead Sea, which should be a lot of fun.